A state appeals court breathed new life Tuesday into campus integration efforts, ruling that Berkeley does not violate California's ban on racial preferences when it considers the makeup of students' neighborhoods in deciding where they will go to school.

Berkeley's policy "does not show partiality, prejudice or preference to any student on the basis of that student's race," said the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco. "All students in a given residential area are treated equally."

The ruling is the first by an appellate court on a school district's voluntary integration plan since California voters passed Proposition 209 in 1996, prohibiting preferences by race or sex in state and local education, employment and contracting.

The case could be heading for the state Supreme Court for a decision on whether Prop. 209 forbids any consideration of race in government programs. The court interpreted the initiative broadly in a 2000 contracting case, its only ruling on Prop. 209, but did not say whether it prohibited all government programs aimed at promoting racial diversity.

Alan Foutz, a Pacific Legal Foundation attorney representing a nonprofit organization that challenged the Berkeley program, said his client would probably appeal to the state Supreme Court, though no final decision has been made. He said the ruling "undermined (Prop. 209's) mandate for colorblind educational policy by allowing districts to continue using race in (their) student assignment decisions."

Benjamin Au, a lawyer for the school district, said he hopes the ruling "will help give a clear path for schools that want to achieve diversity and fulfill their constitutional obligations for integrated schools." The Berkeley program could be a model for the nation, he said.

The 9,000-student Berkeley Unified School District has taken measures since 1968 to promote racial balance between schools in the largely minority flatlands and the mostly white hillside and UC Berkeley neighborhoods.

Under a plan the district enacted in 2004, each area of four to eight blocks is given a diversity rating based on racial breakdown and parents' income and educational levels. The district uses that rating in enrollment decisions at the city's 11 elementary schools and in special academic programs at Berkeley High School.

For example, when considering enrollment at a school that has a high ratio of white, well-educated and wealthy families, the district gives preference to students from other types of neighborhoods. The district does not consider specific students' race or their parents' income or educational levels.

That means no student is given preference, or suffers discrimination, because of his or her race, the appeals court said in upholding a judge's April 2007 decision in favor of the district.

"Using neighborhood demographics when assigning students to schools is not discriminatory," Justice Patricia Sepulveda said in the 3-0 ruling. "The challenged policy does not use racial classifications; in fact, it does not consider an individual student's race at all."